Samuel Usque
Usque Samuel (* 1500 in Lisbon; † after 1555 in Italy and Palestine, possibly in Safed) was a Portuguese poet and historian. He is the author of Consolação às tribulações de Israel.
Life
Little is known of the biography of Samuel Usques. Most of his life is his book Consolaçam as tribulaçoens de Israel ( consolation for the tribulations of Israel ) will be removed.
Samuel Usque comes from a Jewish family from Spain (Huesca? ), Which was sold in 1492 to Portugal in 1497 and forcibly baptized. At this time Usque was born in Lisbon. His Christian name is not known. As Marrano he witnessed the mass baptism in Portugal from 1497 and the massacre of Lisbon of 1507. Usque spoke several languages ( besides the native language Portuguese, he also understood Spanish, Italian, Latin and Hebrew) and had knowledge of the biblical and post-biblical literature. He also knew the classical Greek authors. Although in 1497 the ownership of the Hebrew books in Portugal was prohibited, he acquired great knowledge in the rabbinic literature and quoted from the Talmud, Midrash and from Maimonides.
Around 1530, when the introduction of the Inquisition in Portugal was more predictable, Samuel Usque fled to Italy. The road led him through England, Flanders, and from there across the Alps to Milan. The first major station in Italy was Naples, where he became friends with Samuel Abravanel and his wife Benvenida. His path led him on to Istanbul and Salonica, and finally to Safed in Palestine. Upon returning to Italy, he moved over Bohemia in 1550 to Ferrara. There he found a functioning Jewish- Portuguese community. He met two namesake: the printer Abraham Usque and the poet Solomon Usque. Whether and how he was related to the two, is not assured. In Ferrara, now also lived Benvenida Abravanel and Gracia Nasi, who both acted as patrons of Usque and support in his work. Gracia Nasi because he devoted his writing to consolation of Israel, which was printed in 1553 with Abraham Usque in Ferrara.
Little is known about the further course of life of Samuel Usque. Some sources suggest that he re- moved from Italy to Palestine and died in Safed.
Consolação às Tribulações de Israel
In his major work Consolacam as tribulacoens de Israel Samuel Usque describes the sufferings of the Jewish people from antiquity to his time. Usque elected to the spread in the form of the Renaissance pastoral dialogue.
The dialogue takes place between three allegorical figures shepherds. Ycobo (Jacob ) is the representative of told in the first-person form of the Jewish history of the Jewish people. He is assisted by Numeo ( Nahum ), the Comforter and Zicareo ( Zacharias ), the " reminder " to the side.
The history of the Jewish people is presented chronologically in three dialogues ( days ). On the first day ( Diálogo Pastoril ) developed the history of the biblical period until the Babylonian captivity. The second day ( Diálogo segundo ) covering the period of the Second Temple until its destruction. In the third day ( Diálogo Terceiro ) are shown 37 persecutions from the seventh century until 1533. Usque based on both Hebrew and Italian and Latin sources and processed their own experiences.
The writing was devoted Gracia Nasi; actual addressees were expelled from Portugal Marranos ( to the masters of the exile from Portugal. )
The first edition, which appeared in Ferrara in 1553, was destroyed shortly after its appearance for the most part of the Inquisition. The second edition (Amsterdam 1559 ) marks the beginning of the Sephardic literature of the Netherlands.
Samuel Usque applies with the Consolação, the consolation for the tribulations of the Jewish people, considered a classic of Portuguese literature and one of the first historians of Jewish history.
- Consolacam as tribulacoens de Israel. Composto par Samuel Usque Ferrara in 1553 (second edition Amsterdam 1559 ). Consolação às tribulações de Israel. Reprint of the edition of 1533 with introductions by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi and José de Pina Martins. 2 vols. Lisbon 1989
- Samuel Usque 's Consolation for the tribulations of Israel. English translation by Martin A. Cohen. Philadelphia 1977.
- A consolation for the tribulations of Israel, third dialogue. English (partial) translation of Gershon I. Gelbart. New York 1964.
- Bay di ṭaykhn fun Portugal: Shemuel Uski, zayn zayn tḳufe un " Ṭraysṭ tsu di Laydn fun Yisroel ". Yiddish translation of Eliyohu Lipiner. Buenos Aires in 1949.
- Consolaçam ás tribulaçoens de Israel. Edited and annotated Mendes dos Remedios. 3 volumes. Coimbra 1906-1908.